Carlisle played its part in the English Civil War. Besieged for eight months by Parliament’s Scots allies, its Royalist garrison surrendered in 1645 only after eating rats and even their dogs. A century later in 1746, the castle became the last English fortress ever to suffer a siege, when Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite garrison vainly attempted to hold off the Duke of Cumberland’s Hanoverian army. The fortress became their prison: many died here, and others left only for hanging or transportation.